Kuala Lumpur - The days are numbered for bomoh and faith-healers who prey on their victims using traditional and complementary medicine.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said fly-by- night traditional practitioners would be shut out by the proposed Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) Act.
He was speaking at the Symposium on Evidence-Based Complementary Medicine of Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) at Grand Season Hotel yesterday.
Latiff said the act would help enhance public safety and health in traditional and complementary medical practices.
"There are a lot of complaints against bomoh or faith healers abusing their capacity to heal and once the act is passed, it will help regulate traditional healers," said Latiff who hoped to see the law in place by the end of the year.
Latiff said with Malaysians expected to spend more than RM1 billion on traditional and complementary medicines in 2020 and close to 70 per cent of them using T&CM at some point of their lives, safety and efficacy of T&CM practices were a main concern.
"We also feel the act will benefit T&CM and medical practitioners to enable them to co-exist and help one another," he said.
Latiff said the legislation would provide for the registration of all traditional practitioners. New practitioners would be required to obtain a diploma or a degree in order to practise.
The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) has approved 13 curricula, six degree and seven diploma courses in T&CM offered in Malaysia.
The courses are on homeopathy, acupunture, ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, Malay massage, Islamic medicine, reflexology and apothecary sciences.
The Health Ministry, in integrating conventional and traditional medical practices, introduced an Integrative Medicine programme in 2006 with a unit providing T&CM modalities in government hospitals
Three hospitals were selected in the pilot project: Kepala Batas Hospital, Penang; Sultan Ismail Hospital, Johor Baru, and Putrajaya Hospital.
According to statistics by the Kepala Batas Hospital, from Oct 18 to March 14 this year, 1,858 patients received treatment at the T&CM unit.
"The response has been overwhelming and this was apparent in the case of the Putrajaya Hospital with appointments booked till July this year," said Latiff.
There are more than 7,000 registered practitioners.
Source: www.nst.com.my (21 April 2008)
